Saturday, May 16, 2009

Vagina Monologues in Pakistan!!

Vagina Monologues is one of the intriguing concepts I came across during my February 09, New York visit. When I was roaming around the Broadway, I came across theaters playing Vagina Monologues.

Lately, I came to know that few bold women staged Vagina Monologues on V Day in Islamabad. For me it was unbelievable and I am sure it must had been tough for the organizers to bring Vagina Monologues to a conservative Pakistani society.

Well, in New York, once I was enlightened about the concept of Vagina Day through my American friends, I was inspired by the theme. The concept was first introduced by Eve Ensler, through an episodic play titled the Vagina Monologues. Later she launched V Day, a global non profit that had raised over USD 50 mill for women’s anti violence group through benefits of the Vagina Monologues.

V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. It is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery.

To me Ensler’s words are so powerful she says “womens’s empowerment is deeply connected to their sexuality”, she further says “I'm obsessed with women being violated and raped, and with incest and all of these things are deeply connected to our vaginas." If one looks at the Vagina Monologues, reading, it is directly related to the vagina, be it through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body. Overall theme revolves around Vagina as a tool for female empowerment and ultimate embodiment of individuality.

In Islamabad, Aisha Alam, Samina Pirzada and Nadia Jamil were top Pakistani actresses, came up with a localized play, they talked about women being burnt by their husbands or in laws for failing to bear sons or not being submissive.